Nicodemus: When an Expert Meets Jesus at Night

Introduction

A respected man, a teacher of the law, someone the whole of society honored. Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night, and receives an answer he wasn't expecting: "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." This sermon takes up the biblical term regeneration to show you why you need it, how God brings it about through his Spirit and his Word, and what really changes in you when he acts. Three simple questions to understand the decisive work God accomplishes in those who put their faith in him.

Sermon Outline

1. Regeneration: why?

• Because you desperately need it: humanity has degenerated, having lost the original properties God intended at creation.
• Sin is not an individual accident; it is an alienation affecting humanity as one great biological and spiritual body.
• Neither education, nor culture, nor a change of political regime is enough: the SS officers of the camps were sometimes highly cultured, and "changing life" was the slogan of many revolutions whose outcome we know all too well.
• It takes the unleashing of the creative energy that gave you existence in the first place for the problem to be resolved. Humanity is too gravely sick for superficial solutions.
• God already limits the effects of sin through what theology calls common grace: his rain and his sun fall on the wicked and the good alike, he sends joy into the hearts of those who do not know him, but this does not save.
• Regeneration is a plus beyond the mere restoration of human nature as it was before the fall: it unites you to the new Adam, Jesus Christ, who is both God the Son and man like you. It is a life of a higher order than any natural life, even one without sin.

2. Regeneration: how? By whom?

• Not by yourself: you do not have within you the resources needed to bring about this radical change. Nicodemus saw this clearly: "Can a man enter a second time into his mother's womb when he is old?"
• It is the Holy Spirit who brings about regeneration. The new birth is a birth of the Spirit, and on the day of Pentecost, Christianity commemorates precisely the outpouring of this Spirit on humanity according to the fullness of the new covenant.
• Jesus says "of water and the Spirit": this is likely a single expression, the Spirit compared to a water that washes, purifies, and gives life, like rain on parched ground.
• The biblical background is Ezekiel 36: "I will give you a new heart, I will put a new spirit within you, I will sprinkle clean water upon you." Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel, should have recognized this prophecy.
• The Spirit does not work apart from the Word: the Word is his sword. James 1:18 and 1 Peter 1:23 say that God has brought you forth by the word of truth, by the living and abiding word.
• Why this role for the Word? First, because it elevates you in responsibility: God wants sons and daughters who welcome him, not objects merely dazzled into submission. Second, because the Word adds nothing to the work of Jesus Christ; it points you back to him.

3. Regeneration: in what way? What changes?

• This is the most delicate question. Scripture does not spell everything out, and there is a ridge path between two cliffs to avoid.
• First cliff: the superficial view. Regeneration would be nothing but a change of opinions and convictions. But Romans 7 shows otherwise: your mind can be enlightened by the truth, while another law in your flesh still resists. That is not enough.
• Second cliff: the idea that your old humanity would simply be abolished, that God would create someone else to replace you. That would no longer be salvation (it would be erasure. The continuity of identity is preserved), just as not one of Jesus's bones was broken, echoing the Passover lamb.
• What changes, according to the great teachers (the Reformed theologian John Murray, for example): the dispositions, inclinations, desires, motives, interests, ambitions, purposes. It is the deep orientation of the heart.
• The heart stops taking itself as the supreme point of reference (or absolutizing some earthly idol) and reorients itself toward God, to serve and love him.
• Sin no longer reigns in your life, but it is not yet entirely removed (1 John 1:8). What follows (the progressive unification of your whole inner being), is what is called sanctification, a lifelong work.
• Your body, however, is not yet regenerated: it ages, it suffers. But when the Lord Jesus appears in his glory, you will be transformed and your body too will be regenerated, total regeneration finally applied to your whole being.

Key Takeaways

• You don't need an adjustment; you need a re-begetting. Sin is a disease too serious for superficial remedies.
• Being born again, being regenerated, being raised with Christ, becoming a new creation, receiving a heart of flesh: these are equivalent expressions for the same work of God.
• Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit, who communicates it to you through the Word of God, never one without the other.
• What changes in you is the fundamental orientation of the heart: you no longer take yourself as the supreme point of reference, but turn toward God.
• Regeneration is a starting point, not an arrival: sanctification follows, and the regeneration of your body is promised to you at Christ's return.

Personal Application

1. Am I still secretly relying on my own efforts, my education, my culture, or my good will to change what needs to change in me?
2. Does the Word of God hold a real place in my life, as the instrument through which the Spirit continues his work in me?
3. What "idol" (what absolutized reference point in place of God), is the Spirit currently trying to dislodge from my heart?
4. Am I still confusing regeneration with sanctification, becoming discouraged every time I encounter residual sin in my life?
5. How do I live out the hope of the regeneration of my body, when sickness, fatigue, or age remind me that "the outer man is wasting away"?

Scripture References

• John 3:1-13 · Nicodemus and the new birth
• Titus 3:4-7 · The washing of regeneration
• Ezekiel 36:25-27 · Clean water and a new heart
• James 1:18 · Brought forth by the word of truth
• 1 Peter 1:23 · Regenerated by the living word of God
• Romans 7:14-25 · The other law in the flesh
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 · If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation

Further reading

• Why Do Small Groups Disappear?
• How to Prepare a Small Group Bible Study
• Home Group Themes: 30 Ideas

Frequently Asked Questions

Must one be born again to be saved?

Yes. Jesus tells Nicodemus this with an "amen, amen" that doubles the affirmation: "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." This is not one image among others; it is the condition for entering the kingdom. Without this work of God in you by his Spirit, you can neither see nor enter his kingdom.

What is the difference between regeneration and conversion?

Regeneration is the divine work: it is God who, through his Spirit and his Word, brings about in you a radical change of heart. Conversion is the corresponding human experience: that turnaround, that change of direction you experience when God converts you to himself. You convert because he converts you. These are the two sides of the same event, seen from God's side and seen from yours.

If I am regenerated, why do I still sin?

Because regeneration changes the fundamental orientation of your heart, but sin is not entirely removed on this earth. "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves" (1 John 1:8). Sin no longer reigns in your life, but it still remains. The progressive unification of your whole inner being is sanctification, a lifelong work that follows the new birth. And your body is not yet regenerated: it will be at Christ's return.